Now seems like a good time to start tightening the vise around Republican Senate “moderates'” heads. Nominee funds are a great way to get good candidates to oppose clowns like Susans Collins and Cory Gardner.

@joel hanes: I stand corrected, and also stand to purchase tons of new hats when I come home from South America in a couple months thanks to your introduction of me to a new source of Newsies. thanks for the link!

A group of pugs is called a grumble. A group of crows is called a murder. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of giraffes is called a tower. A group of mice is called a nest. What is a group of Republicans called?

I’ve got a whole pile of postcards (well, 24 of them) with a message saying screw McConnell, screw Trump, pass the damned clean spending bills and override the veto. I need add addresses of republican senators this evening and get them in the mail tonight. (I would have printed more, but my cheap printer decided to quit processing cardstock).

I figure that staff probably tosses them, but someone has to read them before they get tossed.

I like ‘dung’. A dung of Republican House members lost their seats in November 2018.
On the other hand, this has a ring to it: a mendacity of Republicans feigned outrage at the racist Steve King when forced to do so.
I’m sure some commenters can do better. I am hampered by too many ideas unfit for an almost top 10,00 family gardening and pet blog running through my head.

The General Services Administration “ignored” concerns that President Trump’s lease on a government-owned building — the one that houses his Trump International Hotel in Washington — might violate the Constitution when it allowed Trump to keep the lease after he took office, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general.

Trump’s company won the lease several years before he became president. After Trump was elected, the agency had to decide whether his company would be allowed to keep its lease.

At that time, the inspector general found, the agency should have determined whether the lease violates the Constitution’s emoluments clauses, which bar presidents from taking payments from foreign governments or individual U.S. states. But it did not, according to the report issued Wednesday.

Any chance Pelosi constituents on here could convince her to invite an array of guests to speak instead of the SOTU, maybe start out with some brave metoo victims, move onto shooting victims, victims of cruel Republican policies, and end it with some positive messages and agendas from someone, maybe Obama or something. Something along the lines of those dipshite republicans did when they invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak b4 Congress.

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — A TV journalist known for confronting would-be child predators has been snared himself in a police investigation alleging he wrote bad checks for $13,000 worth of marketing materials.

Former “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen was arrested Monday in his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut. He was charged with issuing a bad check and released on a promise to appear in court.

Police say the 59-year-old Hansen wrote two bad checks to a local vendor for 355 mugs, 288 T-shirts and 650 vinyl decals he bought in the summer of 2017.

Phone and email messages were left Wednesday for Hansen. It wasn’t clear if he has a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.

A group of pugs is called a grumble. A group of crows is called a murder. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of giraffes is called a tower. A group of mice is called a nest. What is a group of Republicans called?

— Barbara Malmet (@B52Malmet) January 16, 2019

Haven’t read all comments yet, so if this may be a repeat, but clearly, like a group of ravens, a group of Republicans is self-evidently a conspiracy.

All good and deserving suggestions, but know who’s also up for reelection in 2020?

Mitch “Destroyer-of-Democracy” McConnell.

Apart from retaking the presidency and the Senate and augmenting the House lead, think one of the very best statements of repudiation would be if Dems can draft a solid candidate in Kentucky and remove one of the most loathesome (and, unfortunately, effective) leaders of GOP destructiveness.

I don’t want that motherfucker to just be Minority Leader. Ain’t good enough. (Six years under Obama showed what he’s capable of as an obstructionist goon.) I want, and the country desperately needs, McConnell fucking gone.

(Frankly, sooner than later. Would prefer, e.g., if McConnell is/was part of the Russia attack — how well and truly I hate the insipid term “meddling”; meddling is what happens onna episode of ScoobyfuckingDoo — then McConnell be forced from office under indictment for conspiracy. But that’s me.)

A group of pugs is called a grumble. A group of crows is called a murder. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of giraffes is called a tower. A group of mice is called a nest. What is a group of Republicans called?

Along those lines, if a Dem candidate for Senate in Kentucky started running against McConnell now, it’d focus a spotlight on the fact that the government is shut down now not solely b/c Trump is hostage-taking arsonist throwing a temper tantrum, but *also* b/c unobtrusive insurgent (tho notta violent one, to use Adam’s formulation) McConnell is entirely responsible for blocking a vote. Which would likely pass, thereby forcing Trump to decide whether to veto it nor not.

Force McConnell to rattle his wattles and show his invisible bloody hand. Name, blame and shame. Repeatedly, directly and vociferously, w/o mushy qualification. It’d be helpful to the Dem candidate in gaining name recognition, it’d (perhaps) compel the press to cover McConnell’s role in this shit-show, and it’d be a boon and a service to the country.

You’re part of the past, but now you’re the future
Signals crossing can get confusing
It’s enough just to make you feel crazy, crazy, crazy
Sometimes, it’s enough just to make you go crazy
You get ready, you get all dressed up
To go nowhere in particular
Back to work or the coffee shop
Doesn’t matter ’cause it’s enough
To be young and in love
To be young and in love
Look at you kids, you know you’re the coolest
The world is yours and you can’t refuse it

@poleaxedbyboatwork: I agree, we need a strong candidate to go up against McConnell. I don’t know who it could be, but boy, McConnell needs to go.

Against that statement of determination — a little voice telling me I’m expecting a lot from Kentucky. A good portion of it might as well be West Virginia. Can you imagine realistically hoping for a strong Democrat to come out of West by God Virginia? We’re all thrilled they managed to seat Joe Manchin.

You are expecting a lot from Kentucky. It is a culture of hate and a cesspool of racism. It went ballistic when a black man became president, voted by like 20% for Romney, and Trump is god in most of the state. McConnell in particular knows how to press Kentucky’s. His election against Allison Grimes was all Obama-and-Mexicans, and it worked. Boy, did it work.

That said, he is not popular, women are PISSED and we don’t know what effect that’s going to have, and taking Alabama was even more insane. It’s worth a shot.

I know very little about Kentucky except lotta wingers hates that evil ol’ Obummercare but they sure loves them some KYNECT. Functionally the same thing, course, but one has the advantage of pretending that a black guy never done nothin for you.

Like in Alabama, you’re probably going to need a straight white guy to run as the Democrat. I hate saying things like that, but in certain states, it’s true.

Perhaps. I certainly understand your reality-based cynicism, but think there’s real value in contrast, specially when shit’s all fucked up, as it assuredly is now.

E.g. Think it’s one reason why a young, energetic black guy with a funny name won the Dem nom over a formidable opponent in ’08, and then went on to win the presidency twice. Shit was plenty fucked up at the end of Jr.’s reign of errors, course, and Obama’s fresh, shiny, newness contrasted markedly with McCain — yet another old “get-off-my-lawn” white guy, same-shit-different-year — and inspired a lotta peeps to give Obama a shot.

Admittedly, winning in Kentucky is a much steeper climb than winning a national election for a Dem, but running a youngish person with a more diverse background is becoming an asset in many surprising places, e.g. Sharice Davids in fucking Kansas, right? “It’s so crazy, it just might work!”

Wish I could remember who said it, but in the aftermath of the 2018 mid-terms, recall one smart cookie (I thought) make the observation that many Dem candidates who won (if memory serves, this person cited a black candidate who won somewhere in New York) wind up not getting sidetracked on issues of race and gender (when used by wingers as a red-herring) so much because they *already* represent it. They embody it. They *are* it. Which allows them to talk more about policy issues (like healthcare) that voters who ain’t wingnuts actually care about.

Personally, I would like to see a qualified youngish female who ain’t white announce a bid against McConnell and just start banging the fucking contrast drum. It may be true that a straight white pen1s-enabled candidate is the best shot, but given that most seem to think KY is unwinnable anyway, think we’d all be better served by getting an unabashedly progressive candidate with a diverse background and watch her sink her teeth into McConnell.